The Covenant of Glass
by iLarryyy
Summary: After the fall of humanity, the growth of The Covenant's empire was seemingly unstoppable... until it clashed with the boundary of another, more sinister empire. The Darkness' forces are forced to fight on two fronts, and from the shared goal of destroying The Darkness for good, The Light and The Covenant are forced into a shaky alliance of deceit and distrust.
1. Chapter 1 - Remnants of the Past

**_-NOTICE-_**

 ** _Jus in case any of my followers are confused, This story was originally made up of several small chapters, but I have combined the smaller chapters into larger ones (with some editing of the chapters themselves)._**

* * *

 _"I was their instrument of fear._

 _My boundless strength, their sword  
My ignorance, their shield  
My righteousness, abhorred  
My kindly heart, congealed_

 _But now my ears make no mistake  
My eyes see through their pious farce_

 _My words shall be the stones to break  
Their Covenant of Glass." _

* * *

**Chapter 1: Remnants of the Past**

* * *

Old Russia was nothing now.

An empty shell of its former self, a barren wasteland of rust and snow.  
Everywhere lay the reddish-brown carcasses of vehicles and machinery from a time long ago.  
Weeds sprung out in patches, and the chrome sparkle of fresh spinmetal peeked shyly out from the darkest of corners.  
The morning sun was climbing over the icy horizon, casting a spell of light that spread across the frozen ground and trickled into the dark entrances of the time-worn catacombs.

A lone Vandal scout was treading through the silent wreckage. His shock rifle sat nervously in his spindly hands, and his bony claw of a finger lay just a hair shy of the trigger.  
Only the muffled noise of inhuman footsteps trudging cautiously through the snow and the soft howling of the wind through the sparsely-growing trees could be heard.

A twig snapped somewhere in the distance.

The Vandal stopped in his tracks.  
He lashed his whole body around and raised his rifle in the direction of the sound, his blood-red cape oscillating in the breeze and his bright blue eyes narrowing.  
Nothing moved.  
After a few seconds of uncertainty, he lowered his rifle slightly, not entirely satisfied that he was alone.  
He took a tentative step forward.

* * *

 _ **BLAM!**_

* * *

The Vandal was dead before he knew what hit him.

The clank of bullet against cranium echoed out across the ice, complimented by the crack of a fragmented skull thudding into the snow.  
A bloody spray of bright-blue mist erupted from the now headless neck as a corpse collapsed forward onto the ground.

The wind whistled solemnly through the clouds.

* * *

He exhaled and turned his head away from the scope,  
his breath coming out as a cloud of frosty mist.  
He had been out here, alone, for what seemed like months. There wasn't a lot to eat, it was freezing cold and there was hardly any shelter that wasn't already occupied.

By _them._

The Bandits. The beings that challenged his will to live every day and made him wonder how long he wanted to carry on struggling for.  
The crash a few weeks prior had injured him severely, maybe permanently. His back ached and his legs were numb from the cold, and his stripped-back armor revealed a myriad of cuts and shrapnel wounds.

 _He_ was weak.  
 _They_ were everywhere.

No matter how many he killed, there were always more of them.  
Always.  
But he was as much of a threat to their existence as they were to his.  
He had carved a tally into the wall, of all the ones he had killed.  
He didn't even have enough space to mark it all down.

Suddenly, in the corner of his vision, he saw movement in the distance.  
He quickly looked through the scope.  
After some swivelling, he spotted what he had seen.  
It was a small, white, polyhedral object, hard to make out against the background of snow and ice.  
It floated a few feet off the ground, and drifted slowly across his field of view.  
A dim blue glow shone from the thing's center, and a wireframe sheet of holographic light suddenly began to sweep across the ground in front of it.  
It carried on moving until it came to a stop next to the rusted shell of a car, where it seemed to linger for a moment.  
The small floating object disappeared.  
Like a ghost.

He focused his aim on the spot where it had been and inhaled.

* * *

"I've finally found you! You've been dead for a long time, so... you're going see a lot of things you won't understand." a voice in her head said enthusiastically.

"W-what?" she said hoarsely, unused to the sound of her own voice. She stood up slowly and brushed some snow off her shoulders.  
"Who are you?"

"I'm a Ghost." the voice replied. "Well... I guess I'm _your G_ host now."

"What does that mean? What is this place?"

"Light Records tell me you're Mae F. Walker, used to be a commander in the 1st Guardian Order. You're a... high-ranking Warlock. Old Russia? Does that ring any bells?"  
Her expression was one of blank confusion.  
"...Not really."

"Hmm. That might be a problem. You don't seem to have remembered much. At least you haven't forgotten how to speak. Speaking of remembering... you remember _**that**_ , don't you?"

Walker turned.  
Miles away, sitting between the fluffy clouds, was a gargantuan silvery-grey sphere that dominated the skyline. It hovered only just above the rocky ground, but it cast no shadow. It was glowing ever so slightly, further establishing itself in her view. A feeling of power emanated from it, hitting her like a tidal wave. It wasn't sinister... it felt rather warm and it seemed to welcome her curious gaze.

"I... I don't know. It kind of seems familiar..." she began to say.

"Actually... scrap that, it can wait till later. We've got to get out of here as soon as possible. They'll be onto us any minute now."

"Who?"

"You'll see. Just remember: no-one, and I mean _no-one_ out here is gonna be very friendly with the likes of you. Anyone who isn't you is a threat. You see, you shoot. Comprende?"

"I'll take your word for it." Walker replied. "I'm not exactly in any position to be making decisions for the time being.  
You've got a lot of explaining to do."

* * *

The female's head was between his crosshairs.  
She appeared unarmed, but he wasn't taking any chances.

She had short, straight chestnut-brown hair that hung just above her shoulders, and extremely piercing green eyes. She was small in stature; a greyish tight-fitting suit clung to her petite figure and a piece of white cloth was wrapped around her arm.  
She had been talking to herself for the past minute, but he couldn't make out what she was saying.  
But what if she wasn't an enemy?

 _What if she knew a way out of here?_

He breathed hard.  
Should he stay hidden?  
She didn't look like all that much, but she was the first seemingly respectable creature he had seen in weeks. It could be risky.  
Just before he had made his decision, she broke into a jog.

He would have to catch up to her.

He stood up slowly from his crouched position and slung the sniper rifle over his shoulder. His elongated spine painfully cracked into place as his armor automatically began to seal around him, and his visor hissed as it clamped down over his face. He vaulted over the the railing of the rusted balcony where he had been sitting, plummeted a few yards and landed with a thud on the snowy ground below.

He began to run.

* * *

"Quick, in there!" the voice in Walker's head directed her as she jogged.

She began to speed up. She darted over the threshold of a dilapidated entrance to a huge, metallic building; it could have passed for an old warehouse, or factory. A long, dimly lit corridor stretched far out in front of her, and at the end it opened into complete darkness.

"Weapon, 9 o'clock! Grab it and let's get going!"

She skidded to a halt. The weapon was an 8-shooter, a fat, sluggishly powerful revolver designated as the Maverick Mk.32. It was lodged firmly in the rusted wire mesh of a fence that cordoned off another branch out from the main corridor. Walker clasped it by the handle and yanked it out.

"I hope you still remember how to fight, Guardian." the little voice said tersely as she neared the end of the corridor.

"We'll have to wait and see." was her uncertain response.

Suddenly, a rusty ceiling panel swung open and a slender figure dropped onto the floor. It reared up its ugly red helmet and gazed at her with mad blue eyes, and immediately broke into a frenzied sprint. It wielded electrified daggers in both of its spindly hands, and it let loose a maddeningly ear-piercing howl of pure hysteria as it advanced.

* * *

 ** _Kabam!_**

* * *

The Dreg's helmeted head disconnected from the rest of its body to the tune of hissing gas and spraying blood. It clanged noisily onto the ground and the rest of its brainless cadaver toppled forwards into a heap.  
Walker lowered her weapon, a wisp of smoke trailing out of the barrel.

"Or… maybe we won't have to wait and see." Her Ghost said with a hint of exasperation in its synthetic voice.

* * *

He kept to the shadows.

Showing himself all of a sudden would ruin his chances of ever getting out of here. She would either run away in fear, or try to engage him.  
If that happened, then he would have no choice but to neutralize her.  
She seemed to know where she was going, so he had decided to tail her. He wouldn't show himself until the last minute, when his enemies were out of range.  
If he was at full strength, he would have simply got the information he needed and then he would have destroyed her.  
But as much as he was against it, he needed an ally.

 _Sangheili or not._

* * *

"We aren't safe yet. They thrive in the dark... so they've got the upper hand right now. Stay here, I'll see what I can do."

Ghost silently materialized in the air about a stone's throw away, in the middle of the pitch-black space. He hovered up into the air, and trail of soft blue light followed him.

"I've found something! Yes! This'll get the lights on."

The sound of huge cranking and whirring gears rang out into the darkness, and a pair of feeble lights flickered in the distance.  
Then another pair.  
And another.  
Soon, the whole room was illuminated in a dim yellow glow. It was a lengthy atrium with a slanted roof, with walls of huge, patchy metal panels that were flaking with rust.  
Railed catwalks floored with iron grills ran across either side, and below lay an fatally deep abyss of metallic junk and hardened rubble.

"What _is_ this place? Where are we exactly?" Walker queried her tiny companion as he drifted back to her.

"We haven't got time for explanations." He replied before disappearing back into her head. "Let's move on."

"Forget moving on, Mister. You can't keep me in the dark completely." she chided adamantly.

"Psshh. Fine. But if we run into trouble, it's on you, okay?" was Ghost's reluctant response. "This is The Breach. Back when people were still around, this used to be part of an oil refinery, you know, for fuel. But fossil fuels died out a **long** time ago. The whole damned place got overrun by the Fallen when they first arrived; they've been camping out here for decades."

"The Fallen? _That's_ what these things are? The name... I recognize it."

"Good. Looks like your mind wasn't really gone after all. Guardians like you have been on missions here for years and years, to try and take it back and establish some non-Fallen presence. You were probably one of them."

"Then... why haven't they succeeded? These guys aren't that tough."

"It's not the strength that's the problem, it's the...-"

Ghost's explanation was cut off by the sound of a swarm of 4 dozen dark-red rotor-propelled drones smashing through a wall panel. They were blinking with menacing yellow lights, their chasses crackling with electricity, and their rotors hummed angrily at their sides.  
They began flying straight towards her.

 ** _"-...number."_**

* * *

He was hiding behind the corner of the corridor's exit.

He had heard her talking to something, and it was talking back. The voice had been disembodied and slightly robotic, but then after a while it was gone, and she was talking to herself again.  
She was out on the catwalk with her weapon drawn, but she was in a relaxed stance. She had stopped, but he was growing impatient.  
When was she going to move again?

Just when he was about to reach the end of his tether, a cloud of flying enemies had loudly burst into the room from somewhere.  
They were surrounding her now, moving like a noisy cloud of angry bees.  
Would they kill her?  
He couldn't risk that. He needed a way out.

But just before he sprang around the corner, he changed his mind. This would be a way of testing his potential ally's ability. If it got too bad, he could always intervene. If the female managed to survive the ordeal, then he would be more willing to present himself to her.  
He peeked around the corner and put a four-fingered hand to his half-expended Plasma Pistol just in case things got out of hand.

* * *

"Shanks!" Ghost exclaimed. "Get out of there!"

Walker began to run forwards but was met by a huge barrage of droplets of blue energy which stung her skin and knocked her backwards.  
She grunted in pain and slapped her hand to her Mk. 32, and agilely spun it from the trigger-guard into her ready hand.  
She raised it and fired.

 _ **Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!**_

She took six shots and six Shanks fell into the abyss in a fit of sparks and noise.

 _ **Blam! Blam!**_

Another two crashed onto the catwalk.

She slammed in another speedloaded set of huge bullets and fired them all off in quick succession, taking down yet another eight Shanks. But they were still coming closer and still firing. She was barely dodging their blasts and her relatively weak shock-absorbing battlesuit was going into overload.  
Her brown hair lashed around with her body as she fired off another eight.

"That isn't going to work! Use your Light!" Ghost shouted in her head.

Walker didn't understand what he meant, but her body moved instinctively anyway, like she had done this many times before. She raised her left hand and narrowed her green eyes in determination.  
A huge burst of visible force shot from her open palm and knocked back a large clump of Shanks, sending them crashing into the wall behind.

She spun on her heels and let loose another blast.

"Snipers! 3 o'clock, other end of the hall!"

Two Vandals were standing on a catwalk with Wire Rifles raised and trained steadily on her.  
" _Shit!_ " she cried as she struggled still to beat back the group of Shanks.

* * *

That confirmed it.

She was an able fighter, but right now she was being overwhelmed.  
It was time for him to step in.  
He strutted purposefully around the corner and drew his Plasma Pistol.  
He pulled the trigger.

And held it.

A ball of fluctuating green energy formed at the end of his weapon, and it grew in size the more he held the trigger.  
He walked forwards still.  
The weapon was now vibrating violently in his hand and was buzzed loudly. He stopped and adopted a balanced stance as he raised it to eye level.

He let go.

* * *

The Shanks in front of her seized up in what appeared to be a spasm of green electricity and clattered onto the catwalk, clearly out of commission.  
She was confused for a second, but snapped out of it as a bright blue Wire Rifle bolt soared past her head.  
It carried on and ricocheted off the catwalk railing behind her with a twanging sound.  
And punched straight through the bolt that was holding up the grill below her.  
The section of catwalk sank about a yard and then broke off completely.  
Walker stood on air for a second, and then started to plummet into the abyss, only managing to clasp the edge of the grill as her hand shot out in front of her. She swung briefly, her legs dangling above the deadly drop below.

"Hold on, Walker, try to pull yourself up!" Ghost was yelling frantically at her.

 ** _Crack! Crack!_**

Rifle fire blasted overhead. In the distance two Vandal helmets shattered and they squawked in pain, and she heard their bony bodies clatter onto the ground.  
Something grabbed Walker's desperately clinging arm and yanked it upwards.  
She rolled over onto her knees on the catwalk and looked up.

Towering above her was a huge, armored beast of a creature, with one grey and four-fingered hand brandishing a heavy sniper rifle and the other outstretched in her direction.  
She stood up slowly and took in its full appearance.

It was covered in white-colored armor plating that was sealed together with some sort of dynamic rubber-like black material.  
On its head, there was a dark blue visor that was clamped down over its whole face, and small greenish lights were placed symmetrically on various parts of its body.  
Though it was immensely tall and had long, disfigured-looking limbs that had muscle packed onto them, the way it was standing was suggestive of some hidden human-like quality.  
But this was no human.  
Walker brought her hand slowly to her hand-cannon as she stood up. In a flash, she drew it and pointed it at the being's head.

"Who are you?!" she demanded forcibly and bared her teeth slightly. "What do you want?!"

"There is no need for that, klaka." came its calm response. It had a deep, masculine growl of a voice, but you could tell it wasn't speaking its first language. "I just saved your life, did I not?"

"Doesn't mean I can trust you!" Walker still had her guard up.

"Walker... I've scanned him. He isn't Fallen. Or Hive, or Cabal... or Vex. He's something else." Ghost informed her promptly.

"But remember what you said? No-one out here is a friendly."

"Well, you can forget that. You almost died back there! The Fallen are more powerful than I expected... they're stronger than before. With him we at least stand a chance."

"We know nothing about him!"

"And he knows nothing about us. It's a risk any Guardian should be willing to take."

Walker hissed as she reluctantly lowered the Mk. 32 and holstered it, but her twitchy hand remained on its handle.  
She looked up at the beast in front of her adamantly.

"So who _are_ you, exactly?" she asked interrogatively.

"I am Tel 'Voruun, son of Sangheilios and loyal Ranger of the 5th Covenant Battalion." he said elaborately; but not a hint of pride could be detected in his gruff voice.

"Mae Walker. Former Warlock commander in the 1st Guardian Order. _**Apparently.**_ "

"Hey, why don't you just trust me for once!?" Ghost asked, saddened at her disbelief.  
"I was kidding, Ghost."

"Who is this you speak to, when I hear nothing?" Tel asked, still unaware of Ghost's existence. "Is it an ally?"

Ghost materialized just above Walker's shoulder, like a parrot resting on a pirate.

"That's me!"

"And **he** is the one that is guiding you to your exit?"

"You need our help, don't you?" Walker said knowingly. "You're lost."

"For the sake of my honor, no, I am not lost."  
"And if _not_ for the sake of your honor?"

 _"Then I have absolutely no idea where I am going."_

* * *

 _ **New OCs in this chapter:**_

 **Mae Walker (iLarryyy)  
Tel 'Voruun (iLarryyy)**


	2. Chapter 2 - Old Guardian, New Beginning

_"I am a prophet._

 _From the corners of my holy mouth  
Words of hard-earned wisdom fall  
The present, met with sin and doubt  
The past, unbeknownst to all_

 _The forces of malignity  
Those whose innocence lies_

 _They shed me of my dignity  
And blind the future's eyes."_

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Old Guardian, New Beginning**

* * *

 _Walker and her new-found companion Tel 'Voruun have made it out of Old Russia alive, having evaded most of the Fallen reinforcements and barely escaping undetected from conflict with the Devil Archon, Riksis. They have scavenged an old ship used for transporting Guardians at the start of the Golden Age._

The Tower.  
An architectural masterpiece. A symbol of hope. Of power.

The City.  
A haven. A buzzing urban sprawl of individual life. The last safe place on Earth.

The old, damaged ship hovered slowly up to the level of the courtyard. It stopped just above the steel railing, held up by sky-colored streams of energy. The cockpit flashed blue for a brief moment.

Walker found her standing on a patch of grass; some sort of garden. Layered sets of stairs filed out in front of her, dotted with tall flagpoles, that proudly bore crested long red banners which fluttered bravely in the wind. Winding trees towered over platforms, and sheets of orange silk clung to the corners.  
Every angle of the place had been exquisitely crafted to perfection, and she gazed in awe for a moment.

"Can you stop squeezing me, please!?" a tinny-sounding voice broke through her trance.

"Oh." She suddenly realised she had been holding him fiercely in her amazement.  
"Way to kill the mood, Ghosty." Walker said as she released Ghost from her iron grip.

" _ **Don't**_ call me that." Ghost said, disgruntled, as he disappeared back into her head.

"There are some people you need to speak to. Here, I'll mark them out." Ghost quipped as he highlighted said people with green squares in her vision.  
Walker slowly took off her helmet and walked towards the nearest one.

"Good morning, Guardian. Tess Everis, Special Orders. If you give me your name and rank, I can tell you if you've got anything to collect." said the delicate and white-eyed Awoken merchant. She gave a friendly smile from behind the counter.

"Err... Mae F. Walker. Commander... in the... 1st Guardian Order? I think?"

Tess' eyes widened.

"Commander Mae Walker!? Of course! I'd recognise that face anywhere! But...  
You've been dead for years!"  
"Yeah, well, recently I was brought back. Don't really know why though. This little Ghosty of mine hasn't done the _best_ job of explaining things so far..."

"I'm not even going react anymore _._ " Ghost said half-heartedly, like a child pretending to be indifferent.

"If you need answers, just ask the Vanguards. Down the stairs, straight ahead. Ikora will be happy to see you again."  
"...If you say so. Thanks."

Walker turned to leave.

"Oh! Wait. Looks like there is something for you here... a package of some sort." Tess said just as she was about to leave. She handed her the small parcel.  
"I'll open this later. Bye."

She strode into the center of the courtyard and looked all around her. Guardians were talking in groups, and some were walking about purposefully, with relaxed expressions.  
This was a place of social activity; the hubbub of chat and discussion constantly buzzed at the edges of her hearing, and booted footsteps knocked on the smooth ground.  
She earned a few looks of slight disbelief as she drifted down the central staircase.

Someone wolf-whistled.

A group of three Guardians was sitting in a corner to her right, on some comfortable-looking stools. A blue hologram was floating in the middle of the group, which depicted the head of a huge, ugly Archon.

"Hey beautiful!? You just fall down from heaven or what?" a handsome blonde man with chiseled features and extravagant red armor plating asked smoothly as she walked past the group.

"Shut it, Ackerman. You can never just concentrate on the goddamned mission plan, can you?" a short, red-eyed and steel-plated (yet somehow feminine-looking) Exo scolded the man.  
The third Guardian, an tall Awoken woman with dark blue hair and yellow eyes, sat with her arms crossed and said nothing.

"I'll send you _up_ to heaven if you ever try it on with me again, mister." Walker replied backhandedly.

"She's feisty. I like that." Ackerman quipped as a huge, smug grin plastered itself onto his face.

"I let you use this place for mission planning, _not_ socialising." A deep voice spoke. It came from a figure in radiant white-and-orange armor, with thick, furry epaulets and a horned helmet.  
"If you're not going to shut it, you might as well move."

"You're such a killjoy, Shaxx." Ackerman said, annoyed, and he turned around to look at the hologram with an expression of boredom on his face.

Walker, tired of this dispute, carried on walking straight ahead.  
Ahead of her was an opening into a huge, bright room, with vast, transparent walls and a sunk-in floor. A long table littered with paraphernalia stretched out ahead and three figures stood around it.

Above one of them, Ghost's green marker was hovering.  
Walker approached slowly.

"Hello, uhh... It's uhh... Ikora, is it?" she said, trying to remember.

The extravagantly-robed figure looked up.  
She was an elegantly slender, near-bald woman, with dark skin and bright amber-colored eyes. Her robes were purple and bordered with grey padding, and sparks of orange silk flared up at the collar.  
A wave of surprise washed across her face.

" ** _Walker?!_** It's really you, isn't it? I'll have to admit, you're the last person I expected to see walking around the Tower. But... you were... _dead_?!"

"Apparently so. I... didn't really remember much when I woke up. I was told you had some answers."  
"Whoever told you was certainly correct. So, what do you want to know?"

"Well, we could start off with... how you know me..."

* * *

The silly klaka had left him in here!

She had simply disappeared without a word and left him in the back of the ship. She had probably forgotten that he couldn't just vanish like that.  
He had tried every button and pulled every lever, but nothing got him any closer to freeing himself. All he had done was hurt his back when the ship had spun violently under his unwitting command.

Tel couldn't bear it any longer in this cramped space.  
He would have to break out.

He stood carefully on the pilot's seat and raised his hands up to the thick, transparent cockpit. He pushed with all his might, and his damaged spine ached with the effort. He heard the sound of rushing air and grinding metal, and then threw it open.

Grabbing his sniper rifle, Tel climbed onto the top of the hovering ship.

He immediately regretted his decision.

There was a gap of about 10 yards between the railing of the courtyard and the edge of the ship.  
Normally, he would have been able to clear the distance with ease, but he feared his injured back could impede his jump.  
And just from looking down, he was certain no-one could survive that kind of fall.

He slung his rifle over his shoulder.

"I have a very bad t'ugreacch about this." he muttered as he broke into a sprint across the top of the ship.

* * *

Serithus had seen the whole thing.

An immensely tall, armored creature had just forced open a sealed cockpit of a Guardian's ship and had jumped onto the grass of the courtyard. It rolled as it landed and stood up tall.  
It had white armor that flashed with small green nodes of light, a dark blue visor on its helmet and huge, two-toed feet covered in black rubber.

The thing unslung what looked like a tattered and obviously worn out Guardian sniper rifle, probably scavenged.  
Serithus drew his pulse rifle. He spoke to his Ghost.

"Ghost, send out an alert to all Guardians in the vicinity. Potential enemy has been sighted in the courtyard. Looks powerful."  
"Gotcha."

He jogged down the stairs, his rifle pointed at the armored beast.

* * *

Tel threw his head back so that his neck would crack into place.  
He grunted in pain.

As he looked down. He saw someone approaching from the left.

 _ **"Who are you?!"**_ the person shouted.  
He was a short, masculine looking creature, like a klaka but with pale blue skin and shiny silver hair that hung about his serious face. Worn black armor stuck to his limbs and chest, and a long black and hooded cloak draped down his back.

"I said... **Who.** ** _Are you?!_** " the hooded creature took a step forwards.

"Put away your weapon, o blue one; I am not your enemy." Tel said calmly ,and he raised his hand in a gesture of peace.

The blue klaka took this the wrong way, though, instead becoming even more tense and aiming his rifle at Tel's masked face.  
More beings had approached from all around, all bearing different garments and armors of various colours, also with their weapons raised.

"Hey Serithus? What's going on, Seri? Who _is_ this guy?" one of the many creatures asked.

"I am not your enemy. My name is Tel 'Voruun, son of Sangheilios and loyal Ranger of the 5th Covenant Battalion. I was assisted by the klaka who calls herself "Walker"."

"What are you, some kind of spy?" the one called Serithus asked with a snarl.

"No.

I am an ambassador."

* * *

"Why am I being met with hostility? Perhaps my motives are not clear to you."

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" Zavala shouted as he slammed his gauntlet-wearing fist onto the table. Small objects jumped into the air slightly as the table shuddered.

"I am here to form an agreement… _and an agreement_ _ **alone.**_ " Tel explained calmly to the hugely muscular Awoken Commander in his low, grumbling voice.

"Oh?! And why is that?" Zavala snarled as he brought his face in close to Tel's.

"Because my masters do not take kindly to any sort of opposition."

Zavala's frown deepened. "Are you _threatening_ us?!"

Tel looked up to face the Commander.  
"No more than you are threatening me."

* * *

Walker had tried her best to convince them.

They had practically dragged him down the steps to the Vanguard Quarters and had started interrogating him immediately.  
She could hear it now, very faintly, from just outside the sealed doors.  
She hadn't trusted him at first either, so she could understand why everyone was tense, why everyone was nervous about him. He was a foreigner, _an outsider_.

But she had learned that he was not an enemy. He had saved her. He had never been anything but composed and calm up until now, and he seemed to share her dislike for nonsense.  
She had told them.

But it wasn't enough.

Suddenly, the sealed doors began to slide open with a hiss of gas. Walker took a step back and ran her fingers through her short brown hair.

"Walker. We need you in here." Ikora Rey motioned for her to step inside.

She descended the small set of stairs, sneaking a worried look at Tel, who was sitting in a chair that was far too small for him at the other end of the table.  
His visor was still down.  
Right then, she realised she had never seen his face before.

The Titan Vanguard, a bulky Awoken man known as Commander Zavala was standing beside him, his hands clasped together with tension.

And she noticed that in the corners of the room, four Guardians clad in the purest of white armor had scout rifles pointed straight at his head.

"You need to tell us everything he's told you." the Hunter Vanguard, an shiny blue Exo known as Cayde-6, said in a quiet voice. "He hasn't said shit so far."

"Why not?" Walker asked, puzzled by Tel's unwillingness to co-operate.  
"He says he won't tell us anything until we put the guns down."  
"So?! Then put the guns dow-"

"We can't do that." Ikora cut in. "We know you trust him, but really, we know nothing about him. The guns are for everyone's safety."  
"But..." Walker started to say as she looked over the table at him. He looked straight back at her.

"OK, fine. I won't be able to remember everything he said, but I'm sure my Ghost will. But you put the guns down as soon as he finishes explaining, clear?" Walker said with a serious look on her face.  
"Sure." Cayde said as he brought out his own Ghost to record the explanation.

Walker's Ghost materialised in the air beside her.

"His name, as told to us by him, is Tel' Voruun. After some scanning, he could not be confirmed as one of 25 known fully-conscious species, but he says he is 'Sangheili', a race of warrior-like and highly intelligent life forms from the Planet Sanghelios.

Sanghelios is located in a trinary star system, has two moons and is approximately 1.375 times Earth's gravity.  
The traveler has no record of ever passing anywhere close to said star system, which is over 1000 light-years away."

"So what is he doing **here?** " Cayde asked.

"He says he was sent here by his superiors to seek out potential allies, and is part of a huge, verging on inter-galactic army called The Covenant, which is made up of various other sentient species from other planets. The Covenant maintains, apparently, a rapidly-expanding, highly profitable military empire that spans thousands of solar systems."

"And what on earth do they _want_ with us?" Ikora queried in disbelief.

"That's the thing.  
They can't expand their empire any more.  
They've hit a brick wall.

We call that brick wall The Darkness.

We're on one side of the Darkness, and they're on the other. It's been forced to fight the Light _and_ the Covenant at the same time, on two separate fronts. This one, singular Sangheili actually made it through the entirety of the Darkness' territory alive and popped up on our side of the battlefield.  
However, there is no indication that the Covenant _knew_ who their allies would be, maybe they didn't even know if there **were** any."

"And what exactly do they want?" Ikora asked again.

"From all the information gathered, I can conclude that _this_ is the so-called 'agreement':  
 **If we help The Covenant defeat The Darkness, then they promise not to annihilate us.** "

* * *

Tel stood up.

The four white Guardians with the scout rifles stepped forward and aimed in, ready to spring into action.  
"Hold your fire!" Zavala shouted at them. "You, sit the hell down."

"I tire of this waiting!" Tel raised his voice and stared Zavala in the eyes. Walker was taken aback. This was the first time she had seen Tel lose his cool.  
"You have my masters' proposition now, do you not? I am but a messenger, a bringer of my masters' words. I am under no obligation to obey your commands."

"It doesn't work that way! You're in my custody, so you do what I tell you to do. Now, sit. _**Down!**_ " Zavala bellowed.

" **Foolish creature!**  
I am your ally!  
Not once have I raised my hand against you! Against any of you!  
Do you not understand?!

 **You can trust me!"**

* * *

 _"Then prove it."_

* * *

Everyone turned around.

Ikora had spoken. She was at the end of the table, leaning on it with both arms but looking straight ahead.  
"Let's face it Zavala, shouting at him isn't going to work."

"I was just following protocol." Zavala muttered, visibly flustered and barely cooled-down.  
"How can he prove _that?_ It's not like you're going to send him on a mission or something." Walker asked.

Ikora looked at her in silence.

"No. Don't tell me you're thinking..." Cayde said in disbelief.

"Yes. Why not? We've got the basic information we need to make a decision about how we're going to respond to this... 'proposition'-"  
"If we even decide to respond at all." Cayde interrupted.

"...True. In the mean time, we can... test our new 'ally', here, and see what he's really made of, whether he's _worthy_ of our trust or not."  
"I must speak to my masters first." Tel said, now calm as ever.

Ikora spoke confidently. "I'm sorry, Sangheili, but we're holding all the cards. You can contact your superiors **after** you've shown us that you really are our friend."

Tel slowly sat back down.  
He rolled his head and his neck cracked loudly.

"What must I do?"

* * *

Tel and Walker slowed down as they reached the top of the stairs.  
When they stepped out into the Tower courtyard, Ikora and Cayde were close behind, along with two of the white rifle-wielding Guardians.

"Sangheili, you need to get kitted out. If you're going to complete this mission successfully, you're going to need more than a worn-out Guardian sniper rifle." Ikora informed him plainly.  
"To the left up there is Banshee-44, he's our gunsmith. Get some weapons from him. And plenty of ammo."

Tel trundled off to Banshee's weapon stall, and the two white Guardians followed suit.

"As for you,Walker. You know you aren't any old Guardian, right?"  
"Well, at least you _weren't._ " Cayde added.

"Well... yeah. The 1st Guardian Order, right? Before it splintered into different factions. I was a high-ranking warlock commander. Helped you out on the field of battle a few times."  
"Certainly. But there's something else. You really think you wore _that_ on the field of battle? You really think you used _that_?"

Walker looked down at her plain grey battlesuit and unimpressively bland Mk. 32 hand-cannon.

"Oh... I guess not."  
"I have a little something for you."

* * *

Tel stopped at the stall.  
Various klaka weapons were strewn all over the the table and more were hanging on the wall behind.  
In front of him stood a relatively short, yellow and blue-colored, metal klaka.

Its voice sounded synthetic and raspy.  
"You must be the new 'Guardian substitute'. Well, take your pick."

Tel picked up a few of the weapons, but they were all too small for him. His long fingers barely fit into the trigger-guards and the rifle stocks were all too short for his huge arms, even when extended to maximum length.

"I need larger weapons, o metal one."

* * *

"Master Rahool, meet Mae Walker."  
"Pleased to meet you, young one... but you do seem familiar." the old Awoken man robed in bright yellow noted.

Ikora stepped forwards. "I assume that my message got to you?"  
"Oh yes, oh yes, the... err, engram synthesis. I'll be a second." Rahool said as he rummaged around his small stall.  
He turned back around to them with arms full of small, translucent red polyhedral objects. He laid them out across the table.

"These are engrams. I can use them to forge armor and weapons for you using my Light."  
Rahool carried on. "Usually, the different colors would indicate the rarity and therefore the strength of the armor or weapon, but items from the synthetic red engram only improve with use."

"This stuff is a set of replicas of your old battle armor and weaponry, Walker. At the moment, they're not as strong as the originals were, but if you use them enough, they might reach that standard." Ikora explained.

Rahool's Ghost materialized and began shining a powerful blue ray of light on the engrams. After a few seconds, they flashed brightly and expanded, taking various shapes.

Walker's eyes widened in amazement at what lay before her.

* * *

Tel, now completely ready, slowly began walking across the courtyard towards Walker.  
Walker spotted him.

His white armor and dark blue visor were gleaming in the sun, obviously polished to perfection. Two identical, huge and chrome-colored sniper rifles were slung across his back.  
Attached to his muscular leg was a small, grey object which looked like a door handle, and a long scout rifle was strapped to the other.

* * *

Walker began strolling towards him once the armor had materialized around her body.  
Tel saw her.

A long, perfectly smooth and orange open-necked robe that almost touched the ground flowed from her shoulders. Her hands sat in shiny black fingerless gauntlets and her feet sheltered in even shinier black boots.  
Under the cloak, a heavily padded black bodysuit clung to her figure. A long, black-and-orange hand-cannon was strapped to her waist, and a heavy-looking black pulse rifle was slung over her shoulder.

Under her arm, she was carrying an orange helmet with two inward curving teeth of orange metal protruding from its jaw and a visor that was darker than the midnight sky.

* * *

"Lookin' good." Walker complimented him as they approached each other.  
She stared him in the face.

"I could say the same about you, klaka."

* * *

 _ **New OCs in this chapter:**_

 **Serithus Wrax Arkaness (iLarryyy)  
Karl Ackerman (iLarryyy)  
**


	3. Chapter 3 - Putting Out The Light

_"I am a teacher._

 _My words are blades  
_ _That cut through the hearts of the ignorant  
_ _The Flame in the Darkness  
_ _The Bane of the Careless_

 _Whither I walk I shall leave naught  
But enlight'ning Death behind_

 _And where before their souls my blades have sought  
The lost, forgotten Dead I find."_

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Putting Out the Light**

* * *

 _Bzzzzt!_

A crackle of visible blue electricity shot up her arm and engulfed her head for a fraction of a second.  
The small white orbs that were her eyes flickered, dimmed and then went out completely as her head and arms drooped.

"God _dammit_ , not again!" A tinny and synthetic female voice muttered, exasperated.

After a few seconds of unconsciousness, she suddenly jerked upwards and her beady little white lights flashed back into functionality.  
"I keep telling you, you're not a rifle, Suzie." the synthetic voice spoke to her again. "You can't just strip your own body apart whenever you feel like it, you know? One of these days your tampering is gonna kill you."

Suzie slowly and groggily dragged herself to her feet. She had learned from experience that the few minutes following re-activation were always the most sluggish.  
A long, leather ochre-red cloak rolled down from its flared black collar. The collar slightly obscured her pale blue face, and black leather straps crossed over her armored metal torso in intricately winding patterns.

The small gap at the bottom of her face flashed white as she spoke. "Spare me the lecture, G. I'm about to conduct a briefing, I don't need you to be stressing me out right now."  
Her voice was also synthetic, but it was more monotonal and very smooth.

"I'm just telling you, fiddling with your insides isn't a good thing. And besides, can Exos even _feel_ stress?"  
"Well, if you'd just let me do my thing, maybe I'd be able to find ou-"

 **"Susan?"** a familiar voice spoke from behind her.

Suzie spun around to see a small crowd of Guardians standing at the entrance to the briefing room, with Ikora Rey at its head.  
"Oh. Already? Okay then." Suzie said, almost exclaiming in surprise.  
"I'll leave them to you. Good luck, Guardians." Ikora smiled as she turned on her heels and walked out of the automatic double-doors.

There was a short pause.

The crowd still stood slightly awkwardly just inside the entrance to the briefing room. Hands were in pockets and arms were folded.  
These were said Guardians. Supposedly _her_ Guardians. She almost _felt_ something. She almost felt it rush through her whole body. Something she had never experienced before.

A tingling feeling.

Anxiety?  
Excitement?

 ** _Fear?_**

She couldn't tell.

"So... who do we have here...

Mae Walker,  
Karl Ackerman,  
Trinienne-77x,  
Serithus Wrax Arkaness,  
Tel 'Voruun...  
And me.

W-would everyone take their seats, please?"

* * *

40 minutes later, Walker was climbing the central staircase, out onto the courtyard. Tel trundled along beside her, his presence still earning him looks of disbelief as he walked.

They had been prepped for what lay ahead, and everything had been discussed in the briefing room, from combat formations to place names.  
Their goal was clear.

To wipe out the Fallen House of Devils from the Cosmodrome.

 _Total eradication._  
They were a 6-Guardian fireteam, which was unusual, seeing as fireteams were usually 3-Guardian. However, due to the difficulty of the task at hand, the Vanguard had allowed this, but not without persistent requests from Susan-04, better known as Suzie, who had also been selected to be the Fireteam Leader.

The group was an interesting mix.

Walker couldn't tell if she was happy with her situation yet as she approached the railing at the far edge of the courtyard. She had barely gotten to know her squad-mates, and as a large, chrome-plated carrier vessel floated up above the railing and into her view, she knew they had some all had some much-needed catching up to do.

* * *

Tel exhaled slowly.

He was baffled at how such a discordant, diverse and non-uniformal unit of battle could ever be expected to achieve such a difficult goal.  
Tension was rife between some of these... _soldiers_ , if they could be called that. Grudges and disputes were what got soldiers left behind.  
He knew that well enough already.

From the briefing he had learned many things about what the Guardians, as they were called, did, and how. Infantry was divided into 3 distinct 'paths', each with their own fighting styles and weapon preferences. Each path would then subdivide into more sub-paths that offered further combat variation.

This had impressed him.  
In theory, this was the perfect layout for building an army or even a small squadron, such as the one he was now fighting for.

In theory.

He had been placed on the path of a Titan, and he understood this was because of his supposedly vast strength and durability, a trait that was common among Titans. His fellow Titan in the squadron was a young klaka that identified himself as Ackerman, a pale klaka with bright blue eyes and long hair that was akin to this planet's yellow sun. He had bright red, heavy armor plating on his bulky figure and wore a pair of silver studded boots.  
Tel thought he talked too much. Far too much.

He sat down slowly as the vessel's hatch hissed shut and he returned to silent contemplation.

* * *

What a bunch of _losers_!

These people were no fun. No fun at all.  
His Titan squadmate was a practically silent 8-foot tall monster, Serithus was being his usual moody self, Suzie was just kind of weird in general, Trinienne was constantly nagging him, and worst of all... that Walker chick was _totally_ rejecting him.  
That was a shame.  
She was pretty hot. But he would keep trying.

 **Because that has** ** _completely_** **worked with every other girl,** he thought to himself with bitter sarcasm.

Ackerman knew didn't have much in the way of friends. He had known Trinniene, whom everyone called Trinne, since he joined the Guardians all those months ago.  
He looked at his comrade now.

She was a very dark-gray, steel-plated Exo Hunter girl, who had two metal horns on the sides of her head and a pair of beady red lights for eyes. A light gray, tattered hooded cloak that had small white hexagons dotted all over it was draped down her back, and a gritty, greyish metal armor set closed itself around her robotic figure.

He leaned back and sighed with boredom.

* * *

Ackerman was his usual self, loud, childish and obnoxious.

She had not quite gotten fully to his antics, and she never failed to let him know that.  
But it didn't make a difference.

 **Aaah whatever.**

If he was going to dick around, she'd just let the consequences sink in.

Trinne wasn't really all that happy. Their Fireteam was evidently not in top form, especially with Serithus' disgust for Mr. Outer-space Lankypants creating obvious tension.  
Walker seemed decent. She liked her attitude.

But their leader was weak. Trinne could sense it from a mile away. Suzie was an accomplished fighter, and was by no means a coward or a weakling... but she was inexperienced as a leader.  
And besides, she was distractingly distant.

Scratch that, she was just plain distracting...  
and Trinne didn't quite know why.  
But she did her best not to show it.

* * *

This was bullshit.

 _He_ had to be on a Fireteam with _these_ freaks?

 **Gimme a break.** Serithus thought to himself, silently cursing the Vanguards. They knew he didn't like these kinds of people, didn't they? That's why they put him here.

That alien freak was the worst, though. He probably thought that he was better than everyone because he was bigger than them. _Urghh_ , and he had this... infuriating way of speaking, like he was constantly riding his high horse, because he was an _**"ambassador".**_

Seri pulled up his pitch-black hood and his face contorted into a snarl behind his floppy silver hair.  
He was beginning to wonder why he ever became a Guardian in the first place.

* * *

 **"Guardians! We're here.  
** ** _Deploy!"_** Suzie's slightly shaky voice came from the cockpit after a few minutes of high-speed travel.

"G, open left side hatch." She spoke to her Ghost.  
"Opening."

The hatch started opening along the length of the vessel, and immediately freezing cold wind carrying snowflakes began to blow through the slowly growing gap.  
Walker squinted her green eyes, and far below, she could make out a cluster of rust-red structures scattered among the snow, with some white-topped pine trees bordering the sheer rocky cliffs that loomed over a huge river-canyon.

"Go! Go! Go!" Suzie barked half-heartedly.

Walker slipped on her bright orange-and-black helmet.  
Breathed in.

And jumped.

Her robes flapped upwards and she tumbled a few times in mid-air before stablilising. She tucked in her limbs and she began to pick up speed. The air lashed violently against her cloak and the crunchy white ground rushed ever closer.  
In the corner of her vision, she could see Tel falling in a perfectly straight line, his legs outstretched and his arms pointed forwards.

Tel's armor began to glow with a soft aura of electricity as they fell, and soon his entire body was engulfed in a layer of crackling blue energy as his limbs and armor locked into place.

Walker slowly outstretched her palms towards the ground in sync with Suzie, and florescent purple coils of Light started to wrap around their arms. Between her gauntlets, a small purple Void was forming, and she concentrated hard.  
The ground was rushing closer.

With only one second away from gruesome death, the humming Void shot from her palms. It crashed into the ground in a haze of Light and blew the snow away, and a shockwave of air pulsed into the surrounding space.  
The shockwave pushed Walker back upwards and slowed her fall.  
She fell a short distance, and landed boot-first on the snowy ground with a crunch.

Tel slammed hard. The icy ground beneath the cold white fluff cracked and a deep, rough crater formed below his sparking body. He stood up slowly, and the aura of blue lighting dissipated as his armor unlocked itself.

The other Guardians were close behind, also slowed down by both Walker and Suzie's Void blasts.

The snow settled...  
And the six Guardians began to sprint off into the distance.

* * *

"Zavala, please calm down."  
Ikora asked him calmly as she stood opposite him with her arms folded.

" **What's there to be _calm_ about, Rey**?! We're presented with a threat and we just back down?! **That's _not_ the way of the** **Guardians!** " Zavala bellowed as he slammed his armored fist onto the table.

"What 'threat' are you on about? We've got this under control… the Sangheili's on a leash right now, he's as harmless as an old dog."  
"Old dogs can still bite, Rey. And besides, he's not the real threat; the real threats are his supposedly inter- _galactic_ overlords who, by the way, ' **promise'** not to ' **annihilate** ' us!"

"We were never going to beat the Darkness by ourselves, Zavala, we've known that from the start!" Ikora raised her voice. "Don't tell me you've forgotten that we just _told_ everyone we had a chance so they'd think their lives wouldn't be completely meaningless?!"  
Zavala dodged the question, his blue temples throbbing in frustration. " **We need to take this threat head on!** If we listen to them, how do we know they won't just _betray_ us?! We need to prepare for **battle**!"

" **NO** , ZAVALA! **WE. _NEED. HELP!_**" Ikora shouted definitively.

* * *

There was silence.

* * *

" _You're both wrong._ "  
Cayde-6, who had been watching the argument and patiently waiting to get a word in, addressed them.  
"But… you're also both right."

"Would you care to elaborate?" said an exasperated and irritated Ikora.

"To them, we don't even _exist_ yet. What do they know about us? Nothing. What do we know about them? _Almost_ nothing. Zavala, you're right, we don't know that they won't betray us. Ikora, you're right in thinking that we need help. But you've both made the mistake of thinking that they need to know that we're here, that we're in trouble… and that we're vulnerable."

"What are you saying, 6?" Zavala demanded.

"I'm _saying_ that we should stay **off** the radar. We eliminate their source of intel, and wait until they move on. I think we can all say from experience that, eventually, the Darkness' persistence is going to be enough to crack even the toughest of nuts." Cayde explained, the glare of his bright blue eyes deepening.

"No, 6!" Zavala interjected. "We need to **fight**! For all we know, they could be after the Traveler, they could be… _corrupted_ a-a-and join the Darkness' ranks, they could have the resources we need to… take back our **home** , for God's sake!" he strained to keep his voice, desperately looking for more reasons, more excuses, more words, and he panted in exhaustion.

No one said anything for a few seconds, suddenly realising what had just happened.

To the Vanguard.  
To their Guardians.

 _To the Light itself._

Ikora cleared her throat.  
"Well, gentlemen, we appear to have…

 **reached an impasse."**

* * *

Tel sprinted at the Vandal, his huge arms lashing by his sides as his powerful legs sprung him forwards with each snow-crunching step.  
He bent lower and lower the closer he got, and with a black, four-fingered hand, he drew an Energy Sword from his belt.  
Two prongs of solid, purple-blue plasma began to extend from the silver handle and the sword swept along with his swinging arms.

The Vandal spun around just in time to see a white, 8-foot tall, metal-plated beast wielding a sword made of light lunging straight at him.

In a flash, Tel plunged the blade into its Fallen heart, and bright blue liquid sprayed out from the sides of the deep, sizzling wound. Still sprinting, Tel drove the sword in as far as he could.  
The Vandal squawked in pain as Tel's mighty fist ripped through its chest and came out the back of its spine with a crack. The sword ripped the cloak that was draped down its back, and with a splattering sound its colour suddenly changed.

From blood-red to blood-blue.

"Walker… uhh…adopt Strikeform-1, I-I repeat, Strikeform-1." Walker heard Suzie's rattling voice over Ghosty's comm link.

"Roger that." She replied hastily, before immediately pulling up her sleek, orange-and-black Coiled Hiss 1919 pulse rifle.

She aimed down the red-dot sight, and within a few seconds, the handful of Dregs that were the guard patrol ran across her field of view, towards Tel, who had just received the honor of having the first kill of the eradication.  
She smirked as her finger tightened on the trigger.  
 **"Right on time."**  
Tel heard 6 sharp bursts of gunfire from his left, and one by one, all the heads of the attacking Dregs exploded in spasms of hissing gas as their brains tore away in a shower of bullets.

He turned to look up to the rusty balcony, and Walker gave him a cheeky thumbs up.

The door to the dilapidated and reddish-brown complex suddenly burst open, and three dozen Fallen footsoldiers, mostly Dregs, uniformally spilled out onto the snowy front yard, all brandishing electrified Shock Blades and Shock Rifles.  
An ear-splittingly loud, discordant and frenzied cacophony of a battlecry ensued.

Suzie piped up again. "Guardians… now… Strikeform-2, yes, Strikeform-2 A.S.A.P!"  
Tel began to slash away with the Energy Sword, cutting off limbs and tearing through helmets. Walker maintained a steady burst pattern, picking off multiple Dreg and Vandal heads with pinpoint accuracy.

"Hey, Lankypants, back up! A-Man **in _coming_**!" an jokingly confident voice echoed from on top of the corrugated iron roof above.

Tel ceased his bloodshed immediately and combat rolled backwards.

Ackerman leapt off the edge and a trail of blue Light followed him.  
He slammed into the ground with both feet and it shook violently. The surrounding Fallen were thrown into the air, where they were in Walker's range.  
From the edge of the balcony, Walker growled as she fired off the biggest Void blast she could muster. It sped down toward its air-suspended targets.  
In a flash of dark, humming and purple death, the Fallen disintegrated into ashes, and their remains quickly blew away in the harsh wind.

Nothing moved.

All that remained were three Fallen; one Vandal and two Dregs.  
The Vandal squawked an order in panic and all three turned tail and began to sprint away towards the entrance of the rusted building.

Suzie barked loudly. " **Get them**! Someone, _**get them**_! Before they get awa-"

* * *

 _ **BLAM!**_

* * *

She was interrupted by the crack of a sniper rifle echoing through the snowy hills.

Just as the Fallen fugitives were about to turn the corner into the building, they lined up perfectly, and the singular anti-material round pierced through the ugly, helmeted heads of all three.  
They crashed to the floor in a trail of blue mist.

"Good work, Trinne!" Suzie lauded her comrade over the comm link.  
"Pssh." Her disembodied voice replied dismissively as she swivelled the scope away. "Don't sweat it."

Walker vaulted over the balcony railing, fell and landed poised on the crunchy ground below. She began walking towards huge, dark entrance, and quickly drew her black-and-orange Fatebringer hand-cannon, spinning it by the trigger-guard like a cowboy.  
Ackerman unslung a intimidatingly large, worn-out Hide-and-Seek-42 shotgun and flopped it over his shoulder. He swaggered up behind Walker and an arrogant smile began to creep across his face.  
"We make a pretty good team, eh baby?"  
Walker stifled a sly grin. "That's _Walker_ to you. And who's 'we'?" Ackerman's smile faded slightly. "At the moment, 'Lankypants' over there's got a better chance with me than you do, and he's a huge, revolting alien."

"Ooohhh, burn!" Trinne's joking voice echoed down the comm link.

"Try all you want, hot stuff," Ackerman chided as he slinked away into the building's dark entrance. "But there's no way you'll be able to resist my charms for much longer."

Tel and Walker followed him inside.

* * *

It was impossibly dark.

There were puddles on the concrete ground; freezing cold water dripped from reddish-brown iron crossbeams. An endless corridor stretched out ahead, and the panelled walls peeled back to reveal a dirty, corrugated sheeting.  
To the left was a steep staircase up to a roof-suspended catwalk. At the very top sat a huge, humming machine that was glowing with a myriad of purple lights. Small, nasty spikes protruded from the top and bottom.

"We may have found something." Walker addressed the Fireteam Leader. "Looks like a… generator."  
Suzie spoke, but she was even more rattled than before. "Yes. E-exactly. But don't touch it yet… if it gets deactivated, there's no telling what would happen. It could… lock the place down for all we know. Get your Ghost to poke around a bit."  
Ghosty materialised and floated up to the device. A blue scanning beam was emitted for a few seconds.  
He returned to Walker. "It's definitely a generator. Power output's decrypted though. However, it's fairly simple stuff, shouldn't take long."

"How long d'you need?"

"About 5 min-"

Ghost was cut off as the wall to the right burst open with a crash, from top to bottom. Iron panels flew out and clattered onto the floor, and the whole building creaked in pain. The cold light of day flooded in, and against the sun stood a huge silhouetted figure, at least twenty feet tall, with an enormous, bony head and a pair of blinking blue eyes.  
The beast stepped forward and the ground shook under its might. A long, red banner was wrapped around its ungodly neck, proudly bearing the crest that the Light so hated and feared. The House of Devils.

"Th-th-the d-Devil Archon!" Suzie stuttered. "Riksis isn't suppposed to be here! Get out of there if you can! Trinienne, move in to support, ASAP!"  
"I'm on it."

The Devil Archon reared up its almighty head and let out a horrifying shriek.  
"Fuck this!" Ackerman turned around and sprinted towards the exit.  
As he approached it, the huge doors slammed shut.

Tel drew his scout rifle from his side and began firing at the Archon, moving backwards as he did. The powerful bullets pinged off the sides of its helmet and it began to advance.

* * *

 **Crack! Crack! Crack!**

* * *

Tel fired off three more shots before he was swept off his feet. The Archon unleashed a devastating kick and sent Tel flying backwards with a crunch. Tel hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop.

"Tel!" Walker cried out. She was quick to act. She concentrated hard, and her whole body began to glow purple. Her orange cloak flapped about, and her helmet shook on her head.  
Slowly, she raised her hands. Humming Voids of Light were forming, and the familiar coils of energy began to wrap around her arms.

The Archon was coming closer.

Walker grunted as she began to let loose a barrage of Void blasts. They sailed through the air, crashing into the beast and expanding in brilliant showers of purple sparks. Walker forcefully maintained the barrage, her arms flailing about and her eyes narrowing.

She screamed to Ackerman. "GET TEL UP, NOW!"

Ackerman, although slightly taken aback, complied. He sprinted towards the unmoving Sangheili and shook him.  
Nothing.  
"He's not moving!" Ackerman shouted back. Suddenly, he had an idea.  
He fumbled around Tel's armor until he found what he was looking for. His Energy Sword.  
It wasn't like he knew how to use it. But it was worth a try.

He grabbed the handle and squeezed it. Nothing. He shook it. The blade refused to work.  
Under his thumb, he found a small pressure pad. He pressed it, and with a scraping sound, the double prongs of plasma extended from his hand.

"Walker! Get ready to blast me!" He warned her  
"What!?" Walker, who was still firing her blasts, was confused.

'Here goes nothing,' Ackerman thought to himself as he began to sprint full pelt at Walker. Just before he reached her, he sprung into the air with his powerful legs.  
In a split second, Walker understood his plan. She ceased her torrent of Light and raised both hands towards the suspended Ackerman.  
A pulse of visible force shot from them, and Ackerman was launched higher into the air, speedily towards his target. He drew back his blade-arm and prepared to land the killing blow.  
But just then, a huge, bony, spiked arm sailed out from the purple sparks, and smacked him out of the air and into the wall like a fly.

This wasn't good. Walker was feeling totally drained. That series of attacks had left he empty, and she would need to wait at least another minute before her Light was charged again. By then it would be over.

The Archon stepped forward once more and then stopped. Its bright blue eyes glared at her, daring her to attack, to fight the inevitable.

* * *

 _ **AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!**_

* * *

The roof above the Archon collapsed downwards.

The panels crashed onto it and crossbeams clattered onto the floor. A shadow was falling... no, it was gravitating towards the Archon, and yet more light spilled down into the building.  
There was a gleaming flash of blue.

The Archon sank to its knees. A fountain of royal blood erupted from every orifice on its head, and it fell forwards with a thud.  
The fountains died down.  
And standing atop this enormous prey... was its only predator.

The gleam of blue went up again, and in the light it revealed itself to be a huge, curved blade, a scythe of sorts. With an audible grunt of effort, it came slicing back down, back into the Fallen head.  
And it went up again.  
And down again.

Walker looked on in horror. The scythe was making easy work of the Archon's body, cutting through it like soft cheese. With every elaborate swing came an ever-maddening grunt of sheer ecstasy, and the shadow that wielded the blade was now bathed in the slimy blue elixir.  
Finally, when there was nothing left, the slicing stopped.  
The shadow jumped down from the cadaver's armored back and landed with two heavily booted feet.

And began to approach.  
Walker was on the verge of crying out for help.  
The shadow had almost reached her.

"W-who are you?!" She cried. " _What_ **are** you?!"

The figure stopped.

"Adam." the figure rasped. _**"** **ADAM!"**_ he suddenly shrieked. "Adam's... not. Here. Any. More." The shadow put a hand to his chest.  
"Adam..." the figure trailed off and looked slowly to the left out through the opening into the snowy wilderness.

"He's...

 **out there."**

* * *

 _ **New OCs in this chapter:**_

 **Susan-04/Suzie (Call 0f Darkness)  
Trinienne-77x (Jack Wealdstone)  
Adam Galilean (AK74FU2)  
**


	4. Chapter 4 - A Fragile Operation

_"I am a heretic._

 _I walk a different path  
_ _To those who fall in line  
_ _In my anger and my wrath  
_ _I strike down gods, divine_

 _'Our broken minds; for death they falsely lust  
_ _Our arms grow tired; our worthy new blades rust'_

 _The conscience-numbing poison; through severed veins it runs;  
_ _On the blood of all our Fathers. On the blood of all our Sons."_

* * *

 **Chapter 4: A Fragile Operation**

* * *

 ** _BOOM!_**

Yvu 'Nar Vontakai slammed his huge, 3-and-a-half-fingered fist onto the control panel.  
The thud rang out into the spacious hangar and some Kig-Yar engineers turned in surprise, momentarily distracted from their work.  
As soon as they saw the sound had come from the nine-foot-tall, blue-and-silver Sangheili Imperial Admiral, they returned to work immediately.

The hangar was tinted a murky blue, with huge, arching crossbeams of orange light and purple carbon fibre that held up raised platforms of transparent sheeting. Two sets of staircases ran along the length of the room, curving round to the platforms above. Two opposite walls of the hangar were missing, and in their place, two huge, gently fluctuating one-way shields made of streaks of blue plasma stretched from the floor to the ceiling.

The Imperial Admiral was taller than the average Sangheili, standing at about nine feet. He was generally lean, apart from his visibly bulky arms, and his fingers were long and slender, all except for the furthest on the left, which was severed at the middle. Shiny, dark-blue-and-silver armor encased his imposing figure, and stripes of golden light accented the dark folds of metal on his chestplate and underarms. His helmet was shaped like a crown; a dark-blue base with silver spikes protruding from it, and from his two shoulders and the back of his neck, three symmetrically-aligned blue plates jutted up into the air like miniature shields.  
His grey-blue skin was deeply scarred from experience, and further evidence of this was the absence of his left mandible, which was now nothing but a stump. The most imposing feature of all, however, were his dark, red eyes, a rare sight even amongst a species as diverse as the Sangheili.  
Those eyes had seen death, and worse.  
And when the Yvu 'Nar Vontakai, true Son of Sangheilios, stared at you with those blood-filled orbs, you knew that he could see into the depths of your soul.

Yvu took a deep breath. As the filtered and conditioned air entered his powerful lungs, he took a moment to calm himself. To assess the situation. To figure out how he was going to handle this.  
The hum of the plasma shields and the gentle sparks of the workers' tools amplified the silence.

The planet Earth in the Old Earth System had been the home of the klakas before it was invaded by Yvu's many forefathers centuries ago. The self-proclaimed "humans" had then moved on to the rest of the galaxy and beyond to planets like Reach, leaving their old home behind and inevitably, many of their own kind.  
It was a conquest of the Covenant that had been long forgotten, as the efforts to stabilise a military presence there failed due to mysterious circumstances. The Covenant had not touched this side of the galaxy since.

However, upon their defeat of the klaka emigrants during the fall of Reach, the size and power of the Empire had grown to heights that not even the Prophets themselves could have predicted.  
The boundary of the Covenant's empire had been constantly expanding.  
And now they were back.

But instead of being met by a lowly colony of pseudo-klakas, they had clashed with what seemed to be a force so powerful that was able to rival every single one of the Covenant's advances, and its nature was akin to the fabled Forerunners of old.  
Yvu knew there was more to this enemy than just a huge army of in-fighting rogues and machines. There was something behind it all, something pulling all the strings. He just couldn't shake the feeling as he gazed through the sheet of plasma into the darkness of space.

He silently cursed his ancestors for not just glassing it all when they had the chance.

In the distance, something was approaching. After a few seconds, he recognised it as a Spirit dropship. It slowed down as it neared the one-way shield, and Yvu slowly made his way down the curving staircase. The two huge purple prongs that were the ship's infantry compartments pierced the shield first, and then the antigravity field that lay between them came into view. The swivelling concussion turret at the bottom of the ship locked into a safety position as the compartments opened along their lengths.  
Instead of revealing tens of infantry units, though, a single Sangheili Zealot accompanied by two masked, pitch-black T'voan skirmishers stood in the middle of the dropspace.

The Zealot and his subordinates hopped off the side and landed elegantly in the middle of the hangar floor. The Spirit slowly hovered away through the other plasma shield.  
Yvu strolled up to the three soldiers and stopped about ten paces in front of them. The two T'voan immediately dropped to their knees.  
The Zealot clasped his hands together at his waist and bowed his head.

"You need not bow to me, Voza." Yvu had a coarse and deep voice with an extremely hard edge to it, more like a hiss than a growl.

"What is required of me, sire?" Voza 'Kusumee replied softly, lifting his head to look at his superior.

He was slightly shorter than average in height, but he was extremely muscular. He wore the standard Zealot armor, an ostentatious display of bulky, jutting-out armor plating. It was primarily a metallic burgundy-maroon colour, accented with streaks of rich blue lighting. The central 'fin' that ran down the centre of his helmet was also a rich blue colour, as was his beady little eye. His other eye had a thin scar slicing across it lengthways, inflicted by a predatory animal when he was just a child on Sangheilios.  
Voza was a quiet and respectful soldier. He was a hero, a hero worthy of his rank, and hero who was loyal and willing to carry out his masters' commands. To others, he was distant and often cold. But he knew things that they didn't.  
Things they weren't supposed to know.  
He dismissed his two subordinates with a subtle hand gesture, and they scuttled away.

Yvu began to walk slowly towards a large, circular portal of a door beneath the staircase, and Voza followed suit. Yvu raised his hand and the door slid open with a hiss of gas. A long, softly illuminated corridor stretched out ahead of them.

"As you know, there has been no word from Kexe's squadron since their supposed entry into Old Earth." Yvu explained. "I fear the worst has come to pass. If they are truly dead, then it means that there is no hope of finding any sort of alliance within the time it will take for our own forces to be repelled. I would ask you for your advice on the matter."

"What was the last contact with Kexe involving, sire?" Voza inquired suddenly.

Yvu, taken aback by the unexpected question, paused for a moment.  
"I have the message recorded. Listen for yourself."  
He raised his arm and pressed a touch-sensitive panel on his wrist.  
A crackling sound like a jammed signal emanated from the device, and the rough, feminine voice of Kexe 'Kolkamee could barely be heard over the sound of static.

* * *

 _::::::::(Be advised, hostiles ar-)::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_  
 _::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::(-aelak's Seraph is down, I repeat-)::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_  
 _:::::::(Arva is down, we are under att-):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::(-oth dead, it's just me and Tel now, I'm taking-):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::(Old Earth airspace is not yet viable, retreat in progr-):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  
:::::::::::::::::: **[CRASH!]** :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::(I'M HIT!):::(I CAN'T REGAIN CONTROL! I-)::::::::_  
 _::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::(-rrraaaGGGHH! It's up to Tel to-):::::::::::::::: **["KIIEEEEKEKEKEKEEK!"]** :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_  
 _:::::::(Hostiles on board! It's everywhere-):::::::::::::::::::(-t's like):::(-the Flood-)::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_  
 _::::::::::::::::(It's not safe here-):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::( **NO!** )::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::_  
 _::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::(Turn back.):::_ _ **[CRACK!]  
**_ _ **[BOOOOOM!]**_

* * *

The recording ended abruptly.

Yvu pressed the panel once again and then lowered his arm slowly. He never showed it, but every time he had listened to that recording, even when would sit there for hours playing it over and over to try and decipher it, it chilled him to the bone.  
The army the Covenant had been fighting was not only far larger than they had originally suspected, it was also a thousand times more fierce.  
But this was more than an army. It was a force of nature.  
Voza stood in silence for a few seconds, feeling the weight what he had just heard.

"Sire?" Voza requested his commander for permission to speak.

"Go on." Yvu replied.

"Nearer to the end, 'Kolkamee spoke of... something similar in nature to the Flood. But in all my many battles against the enemies of the Covenant, I have never come across such a terrible creature as those Parasites. C-Could this mean that there are still enemies out there that we have not yet faced?"

Yvu cleared his throat. "I have pondered on this fact as well, comrade. The enemies here are... not like the ones we have faced before... not like the bandits or the machines. Perhaps a... _hive_ of some sort... like the Parasites were, all those years ago."

"And sire? What of Tel 'Voruun? 'Kolkamee did not explicitly speak of his demise, so perhaps..."

"Perhaps he is still alive? Even if he is, we have no way of contacting him first. He has to find a way to make _us_ aware of his presence, wherever he is."

"Excuse my doubt, my lord, but how in the name of the Sang 'Shyuum will he be able to do that? I heard it myself, Old Earth is a dangerous place. He could be dead... he could have been captured... forced to talk, or worse, even, and even if he _does_ manage to get through to us, what then? We're not going to-"

"Halt your mouth, Yanme'e!" Yvu raised his voice slightly to interrupt the blabbering Zealot.

"Forgive me, sire." Voza quickly replied.

Yvu nodded slightly, pardoning his officer. "Tel may only be a Ranger, but he is young and skilled. His mind is fresh, and I trust that he will succeed in any mission assigned to him. If he is not dead yet, then it could mean that he has found some sort of assistance within the depths of this barren system. Assistance that we could certainly do with."

They reached the end of the corridor and stopped walking. "If Tel does not contact us soon, then we're going to have to send someone else."  
Voza's two hearts began to race as he realised the real reason why Admiral Vontakai had asked for him.

 _ **"That's where you come in."**_

* * *

 _ **-2 Months Prior-**_

* * *

An ungodly roar of power and rage resonated across the orange plains behind him.

The sanguine dunes towered all around him, a trench of unfathomable depth sank down below him, and clumps of sifting sands crumbled at his feet, cascading like water to the bottom of the abyss. He sat, crouched, his weapons holstered and his swords sheathed.  
A chilling wind blew through the ever-still sands of the planet known as Mars, and a bolt of bright red lightning cracked down from the darkened sky.

 _ **"Sarak! Hurry! Get over here, now!"**_

Sarak 'To hurled himself out of cover and sprinted across the dune of reddish sand. A burst of sound... a torrent of yellow rifle bolts whizzed past his face and thudded into the ground beside his feet, causing small clouds of orange dust to puff up into the air.  
He ran at full pelt, the erratic strikes of lightning illuminating every surface of his crimson Ranger-clad body.  
Kexe continued to shout at him through his comms link as her Seraph's engines began to glow in the distance.

"I'm not going to make it!" he rasped, panting with every footstep. "Leave, quickly! _Wort wort wort, 'ka sa' karagesh-na!_ "

Kexe's Seraph slowly floated off the ground. The bright blue plasma shield sparked into existence and the long, two-finned purple tail locked into place. Her head was poking out from the open cockpit.

" ** _Nonsense!_ ** There's still time!"

"No, there's not. I'm too far away..." Sarak trailed off as he realised the weight of his situation.

Kexe became frantic. "Don't think you can fight him on your own, we barely even-"

"No. I know I can't win... but I can slow him down." Sarak interrupted her. He slowed down to a jog. "Go on, 'Kolkamee. Don't worry about me... I've always dreamt of it being this way, ever since I was a child."

Kexe hesistated. She pressed a button and the cockpit closed over her head, the machinery folding itself into a more streamlined state. Her voice was solemn, but a bit shaky.  
"I... I cannot take your honour from you now, comrade."

Sarak had stopped running now.

"I hope you will die just as you lived; without fear." She spoke the words almost reluctantly. "Goodbye, my friend."

Her ship began to turn around in mid-air.  
Sarak raised his head adamantly as he watched Kexe's Seraph took off for the last time.  
He drew two Needlers from the sides of his waist, shook them simultaneously, and the glowing pink shards of crystal extended from their tops.  
He turned around slowly, elaborately dragging his three-toed foot through the red sand.

Towering above him was the last enemy he would ever face.

* * *

Kexe barked into her comrades as her Seraph rocketed up into the air.

 _"No-one leaves yet!_ Remain in orbit." She cracked her knuckles. "We're going back for him...  
 _all of us._ "

"Commander, I'm not sure that we coul-" Taelak 'Zarr began to protest, but Kexe was having none of it.

" ** _No!_** We are _not_ going to leave him behind... after everything he's done for us... we _can't_!"

"Taelak, she is right." The calm, collected voice of their youngest squadmate addressed him. "Sarak doesn't deserve this."

 ** _"And what would you know about it, 'Voruun!?"_** Taelak shouted over the comms link. "How do you know he doesn't deserve this? To die a hero has been his only wish ever since he became a soldier! _This is the **best** thing we could possibly give him!_ He is a hero now, but the moment we go back there, we'll be undoing everything he sacrificed himself for... we'll die, honourless, alongside him!"

"You... you _bastard!_ **You _want_ him to die!** " Arva 'To screamed at Taelak's disembodied voice. Kexe could hear the pain in her voice. "My brother doesn't deserve this!"

" ** _We'll die if we go back!_** Do you not _realise_ that?!" Taelak became desperate. "We _can't_ die now... we've come so far... and you want to throw it all away, just to steal his honour?"

Kexe breathed in hard.  
Her hand rested on the throttle, shaking slightly.  
"I'm sorry, everyone. I fear that Taelak is right... we can't risk this... we have to look at the bigger picture."

"But... but... my brother..." Arva whispered. "H-he's gone..."  
"Save your despair, Arva." Tel 'Voruun consoled her briefly. "If this is Commander 'Kolkamee's will, then it is my will, too."  
Taelak exhaled. "There. Finally, you're talking some sens-"  
"'Zarr, just do yourself a favour and shut up." Kexe spat.

The ball of red sand and rock became a tiny speck in the darkness as the four remaining Sangheili scouts sped off to their next destination.

* * *

 ** _-1 Day Later-_**

* * *

"I must say, I'm surprised we haven't encountered any resistance since Mars." Kexe addressed her squad. "Usually slipspace gets their attention."

"We've only been in slipspace for a few very short bursts, Commander. Perhaps... they don't notice the impulse drivers when we use them for such a short time?" Arva suggested. She sounded completely normal; her pain at the loss of her brother was already long gone, as was the nature of the Sangheili.

"I thought that as well. But even when we only used them briefly before, they still noticed."

Tel spoke up. "Commander, are you suggesting that... it is a _trap_ of some sort?"

"I am unsure." Kexe pondered on the idea.

"Perhaps we are entering more friendly territory, Commander." Taelak, who had since been forgiven for his insubordination, postulated. "For the enemy not to have attacked... it is unusual."

Kexe sat in thought for a second before making up her mind. "If we slipspace the rest of the way, we'll avoid the frontlines of the resistance, if there is one. I'd say getting behind the enemy lines is our best option. They may notice us if they haven't already, but we'll be close enough to Old Earth to land before they can attack us in the air."

"Pardon my doubt, Commander, but how will landing on Old Earth help shake them off?" Arva queried.

"Weren't you listening to my brief before we set off?!" Kexe sighed. "The inhabitants of Old Earth are the most likely candidates for future allies... we have seen the potential of the Klakas before, but we can only hope that the ones they left behind have fared as well as they did, technologically.

And remember, soldiers, if we do end up meeting the Old Earth Klakas, you must never, and I mean **_never_** , utter a single word about our conquest of their emigrant cousins... because then, they will _never_ join us."

"And if there are no Klakas there?" Taelak asked.

 _"Then we will have failed our mission."_

* * *

 _The four Sangheili vibrated in their seats as their Seraphs' impulse drivers started to warm up. In a flash of blue light, the space around them was enveloped in the long white streaks of stars as it compressed the vast journey into a passing moment.  
After a few seconds, they screeched to a halt at the other end of the slipped space.  
Before them sat the birthplace of their race's oldest rival, a swirling ball of wispy white clouds, rich blue oceans and thick green lands._

 _Old Earth's singular moon was partially eclipsed by the planet itself, but on the surface, something was peeking up from just above the clouds. A large silver sphere, that invoked strange feelings in the four soldiers the longer they gazed at it._

* * *

"It... it's..." Arva said in awe.

"It's astonishing." Taelak finished her sentence for her.

"No time to gawk!" Kexe barked. "We land, now!"  
The squadron of Seraphs moved swiftly into orbit and began to race towards the surface.

Tel was about to slam the throttle forward when all of a sudden his control board began to flash and warning alarms sounded. He turned his head. In the distance, a cluster of grey rocks was becoming larger and larger as it sped towards them.

 _ **"WATCH OUT!"**_ Tel warned Taelak in vain.

Taelak didn't even have time to react. A few of the rocks began to glow as they ripped through his Seraph's plasma shields and easily pierced the hull. He veered off to the side, his ship twisting and tumbling through the vacuum.  
 _ **"ARRRGH! IT'S EVERTYWHERE! N-"**_  
He screamed in pain, his dying words cut off the comms link abruptly as his Seraph was ripped to shreds.

Kexe slammed a button on the dashboard and barked into the mic, transmitting a signal all the way back across what was left of this hostile, barren system.

 _"All Covenant forces, be advised, hostiles are present in Old Earth proximity-"_

She swerved to avoid a barrage of glowing rocks.

 _"Taelak_ 's _Seraph is down, I repeat, Taelak is down."_

Arva 'To gasped as the tail of her ship was clipped by one of the luminous asteroids, and she spun out of control at high speed. Another small object crashed directly into her cockpit. She held on to her seat as the air inside escaped rapidly through the gaping hole with a whooshing sound.  
In front of her, the small object began to shake, and it split down the middle. Her eyes widened as a dozen tiny creatures crawled from the rock, dripping with blue-green liquid.  
She screamed as they jumped on her and sliced her to pieces with their tiny claws.

Kexe carried on recording the distress signal.

 _"Arva is down, we are under attack by unidentified enemy forces, I repeat, we are under attack."_

Kexe rolled to the right to avoid crashing into Arva's carcass of a ship.

 _"They're both dead, it's just me and Tel now, I'm taking defensive countermeasures."_

She pressed a button, and the side of her Seraph opened up, displaying a trio of plasma cannons. They automatically began to lock onto the incoming objects.

 _"Old Earth airspace is not yet viable, retreat in progress."_

 _ **Blam!**_  
The plasma cannons fired, and struck true. The objects shattered, but from the rubble, a myriad of tiny blue-green creatures carried on racing toward her Seraph like a cloud of locusts.  
They smashed into the hull with a huge crashing sound, somehow completely bypassing the plasma shields, and began slicing away at it, burrowing inside. The ship shook violently.

 _"I'm hit! I can't regain control!"_

The malicious little creatures popped into the cockpit and started bunching up all around her. She reached down to grab her energy sword, but before she could lay a finger on it, the creatures jumped at her. She screamed.

 _"It's up to Tel to find our allies now... it... has been an honour serving my masters."_

The beings all simultaneously screeched.

 _"Hostiles on board... it's everywhere... it's like the Flood..."_

She was on the brink of losing consciousness as her armour was rendered useless and her skin was instantly flayed from her body by a hundred tiny blades.

 _"It's not safe here... there are more of them than we-"_

Her eyes closed as she felt herself split open.

 _"No... turn back."_

* * *

Tel roared with anger as he sped toward the Earth.

He was the last scout left.  
He twisted and turned to avoid the incoming objects, but they were still hot on his tail.  
Suddenly, his Seraph was engulfed in fire. He was at the boundary of the atmosphere. He carried on accelerating, but the objects were still keeping up, as if they were magnets and he was a piece of iron.

Of course!

They were being attracted to the ship somehow. Tel rapidly formed a plan in his mind, and the sky around him became gradually more and more blue. He could see the clouds below him now, but still the objects pursued him.  
Just as the Seraph pierced the veil of stratus fluff, he slammed the ejector button.

He flew out of the back of the ship instantly, and it carried on plummeting towards the surface.  
And sure enough, the objects carried on following it.  
Tel soared gracefully into the air. For a brief moment, he could see everything. The mountains, the snow-covered lakes and forests, the rusted buildings, the glaciers, all of it was sitting peacefully below him. It looked like desolation was the only thing he would find on the surface of this unmoving world as he reached the pinnacle of his flight, and he closed his eyes as his long drop to the ground began.

He outstretched his arms and he picked up speed, the freezing air forcing itself up against his straightened limbs.  
Bringing a hand to his chest, sparks formed while his body was encased in a crackling blue aura, and his armour locked into place. It was the only chance he had.

The icy ground came ever closer.

Thirty seconds from impact.  
Ten seconds from impact.

 _One second from impact._

* * *

 ** _New OCs in this chapter:_**

 **Yvu 'Nar Vontakai (Call 0f Darkness)  
Voza 'Kusumee (asqwerty3345)  
Kexe 'Kolkamee (Call 0f Darkness)  
Sarak 'To (iLarryyy)  
Arva 'To (iLarryyy)  
Taelak 'Zarr (iLarryyy)  
**


	5. Chapter 5 - The Grave of the Exiled

_"I am the storm._

 _The thunder that crashes  
Across the violent seas  
The lightning that flashes  
Among the noiseless trees_

 _Their deceit fools not the rain  
Their lies pass not the clouds_

 _'Come, my brothers, share my pain  
Find what their Darkness shrouds.'" _

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Grave of the Exiled**

* * *

Suzie sprinted across the snow, her synthetic lungs rattling in her steel-plated chest. Her long, ochre-red cloak flapped about behind her, and the cold, harsh wind whistled through the gaps in her metallic frame. The large reddish-brown complex was coming into view. She could see that some patches of snow along the way were stained with Fallen blood. She raised a hand to the side of her pale blue face.

"G, broadcast to all fireteam members."  
"On it." a small, synthetic and feminine voice replied.

"Fireteam, do you read me? What's going on in there?"

Nothing.

"Trinne? Where are you?"

Trinne spoke into the comms link, but her voice was fuzzy and barely comprehensible. "I'm… almost there. Don't worry about me… worry about Serithus."

The sound of his name hit Suzie like a brick. " _Shit!_ Where is he? I know he's not supposed to come in yet but, he hasn't updated me on his position!"

Trinne sighed with force. "Son of a _bitch_."

Suzie closed the link. What the hell was he doing? Was he sulking again? More importantly, what had happened to the others? Riksis had surprised them, sure, but that was no reason not to communicate with her.  
She would just have to get there in time.

* * *

The shadow loomed over her.  
Walker scrambled to her feet.  
The man was tremendously tall and muscular. Not in a sexy way.  
In a scary way.  
He looked like a hermit. His armor was not in good condition; the metal plates on his shoulders, legs and chest were covered with scratches, with only a few streaks of the original gold colour spared for visibility. A long, black and gold cloak hung ripped from his neck. Snow and dirt were rife all around his bulky figure and hair sprouted out from his jaw and upper lip, contorting like snakes into a rugged black beard.

 _God_ , Walker thought to herself. What _is it_ with me always having to square up to tall people?

She looked down at his large black greaves, which, unsettlingly, were still grasping a long black pole with a gently curving, blue tinted blade sticking out from the end at ninety degrees. A scythe, still spattered with bright blue blood. The man's head was twitching slightly, and his mouth was slightly open. His shiny grey eyes looked glazed over and unfocused. A short, red scar ran across the bridge of his nose. Yeah, more than a little unhinged, it seemed.

"Uhh… Adam, was it?" Walker did her best to sound confident. "Look, thanks for saving us and all… but-"

"I did not save you… green-eyes. I took the Fallen soul. That… is all." The man's voice was coarse, like he hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time. "Adam Galilean was his name. I… am not he."

Walker maintained her composure. What the hell _is_ this guy?  
"Okay, okay. Who are **you** then?"

He breathed in deeply, and raised his scythe. Walker flinched and jumped backwards, drawing her Fatebringer hand-cannon.  
To her surprise, though, he simply sheathed it on his back. She kept the Fatebringer in her hand, just in case.

"In truth... I am not sure. I must find Adam first. He's... he's out there somewhere."

 **What in the…  
** Walker was taken aback, but she was also intrigued. So much time spent alone had cracked this poor man. She suddenly realized. This man _was_ Adam Galilean. The trauma of prolonged solitude had somehow separated him from his previous self. He didn't believe Adam existed anymore. He was obviously a Guardian, a Hunter, so… he would have a Ghost, right? If he did, then why hadn't he contacted the Tower? As if he could read her thoughts, Adam raised his open hand to chest-height for a few seconds. Walker waited expectantly for his Ghost to appear.  
Nothing happened.

And yet, he spoke. "Speak to me, comrade. Tell me who these meddlers are."  
A few seconds of silence followed.  
"No, not weaklings, brother, just… not ready…"  
More silence.  
"Perhaps… perhaps they will help me find him… find Adam…"  
Adam nodded and lowered his hand. At that moment, Walker knew that he was even less 'with it' than she had originally thought. He didn't have a Ghost.  
He just _thought_ he did.

"I… my brother says you can help me. To… to return to Adam… to return to my brethren… Cayde…" Adam spoke to Walker directly. He didn't sound dim, in fact his diction was very precise and his voice was becoming a bit clearer now.

"Yeah… uh… Cayde! I know him!" Walker stammered, still trying to be cautious with her words. "He's the Hunter Vanguard."

Adam's serious face lit up for a brief moment. "You must take me to him… my exile must be broken."

" **Ok…** but we need to find _our_ friends first, all right?" Walker asked, feeling a little bit more comfortable talking to this behemoth.

Adam stood in thought for a few seconds.

"I accept this proposition."

* * *

Serithus slipped his black hood over his head.

At the end of the pitch-black corridor, he could see a soft light, which grew brighter and larger the closer he came. Very soon, he could hear the murmur of conversation between his intermittent footsteps.  
He stopped.  
The shadows enveloped him, but he could still see out of the opening. There was Walker, standing up, holding her hand-cannon behind her back. She was looking up at a tall, bearded man, who was covered in dirty golden armor and had a ripped gold-and-black cloak flowing down his back. Serithus knew instantaneously that the man was a Hunter, like himself. He was a Guardian, supposedly an ally. So why was Walker hiding her weapon?  
He couldn't say he'd ever seen that armor before.

Serithus felt the adrenaline start to flow.  
The man must have been a rogue.  
A bandit.  
The others were in danger, and Serithus was going to save the day. In his mind, he jumped to ten conclusions at once, and before he even knew it himself, his hand started to glow with Light. A short, fat hand-cannon made of fiery orange Light had soon materialized in his half-clenched fist, and he began to stroll forwards towards the opening.

His hand trembled as he raised it to eye-level.

* * *

 _ **Kabam!**_

* * *

Adam ducked.

The bolt of Solar Light whizzed above his head, and punched a huge hole in the other side of the rusty building with a clanking sound.  
He drew his scythe and spun around towards the direction of the shot.  
Two more bolts soared out from the darkness of the corridor, and with a quick spin of his blade they both pinged off to the sides in a burst of fire.

 **"** **Aaaaagggrrhhh!"**

The shouted of a young, enraged man echoed out into the building and he sprung forth from the dark opening. A long, leather cloak lashed up behind him as he ran, and silver strands of hair whipped to the sides of his hood. His smooth blue face was bent into a snarl.  
He drew a foot-long knife from a sheath on his chest.  
Adam skillfully spun the scythe-pole between his fingers and curved it along the length of his torso as the young man's blade came swooping down.

 _Bzing!_

The knife bounced off the scythe's edge and twirled into the air.  
The blue man jumped upwards, his hood slipping off his head as he caught the airborne machete.  
Adam flipped his scythe upside-down and swiftly thrust the end of the pole towards the jumping man's stomach.  
With his free hand, the man parried the incoming beam and descended towards Adam from above.  
Adam quickly sidestepped and the blue man landed poised on the ground. The man grunted with anger and began swatting the air near him like he was surrounded by a cloud of angry bees as he advanced.  
Again, Adam crossed the scythe along his body in a defensive stance.

The machete-wielder and his scythe-bearing opponent began to exchange fire with a barrage of well-placed swings, each one clashing against the other. Finally, they reached a standstill.

 _Clang!_

Adam's arms were crossed over each other, clenching the scythe tightly. The blue man had both hands on the hilt of his blade, pushing up against the sharp edge of the scythe.  
Both grunted with effort. After a few seconds, Adam began to regain control. He pushed down with all his might and the machete was ripped from the man's hands. It clattered onto the floor.  
The man stumbled backward.  
Adam exhaled and with one hand, he flipped his scythe upside-down again.

* * *

Serithus' eyes widened as the huge man approached him.  
He couldn't help but feel that he had made a huge mistake.

The man thrust the end of the pole forward and Serithus barely dodged it, only to be smacked in the other side of the head by a quartet of steel-plated knuckles. The man brought the pole back again, and this time he struck true.  
The end of it dug into his stomach without piercing the skin, and he coughed, winded.  
Serithus doubled over, and the pole came crashing down on his shoulder, denting his armor and jarring his bones. He felt a large hand on top of his head, and he began to be lifted onto his feet from the roots of his silver hair.

 ** _"Rrrra_** ** _aaagggghhhh!"_**

He screamed in pain as the man began to lift him even higher, until his feet dangled above the ground.  
Serithus swung at him, only managing clipping the end of the man's long, ragged beard.

His beastly opponent sheathed his scythe.

* * *

Walker drew her Fatebringer.

" **Stop! Both of you! Stop or I'll shoot!** " She shouted at them in vain.

She pointed it at the air and fired a warning shot.  
No response.  
Adam drew his open hand backwards and clenched it into a fist. The black, metallic knuckles of the gauntlet slowly started to spark with electric blue Light.

" _ **Adam!**_ _ **Stop!**_ "

From her right, she could hear approaching footsteps.

* * *

 ** _Crunch!_**

* * *

Just as the beastly man was about to land the killing blow, a two-toed, rubber-encased foot flew in from the side and crashed into his head.  
He tripped over his feet and slammed onto the ground some distance away.  
Serithus dropped to his knees.  
Tel wrenched him to his feet.

"Get _off_ me!" Serithus spat, and he shrugged himself free from Tel's grasp.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Walker shouted at him. "Shooting at him like that? What was going through your head?!"

Serithus groaned. "He was going to attack you… you should be thanking me…"

"You should be thanking Tel, you stuck-up knucklehead! He just saved your **_life_**."

Adam stirred on the ground beside them. He groggily got back on his feet. Walker ran to him.

"Ad-… I mean, hey, I'm so sorry about all of that…" she began to say as she ran.

"Do not be sorry, green-eyes." Adam was surprisingly calm. "I understand your comrade's fear. I… I have seen the same fear in the eyes of all beings that I encounter. But… I could have killed him if I wanted it to be so. He will _not_ cross me again."

Suddenly, the large iron doors to the complex burst open and slammed against the inside wall.  
Suzie stood in the opening, her rifle raised.

 **"** **Wh-what the** _ **hell**_ **is going on?"**

* * *

 _"So then… it's decided. We vote."_

 _"Who should take part? Should we allow the City's people to vote as well as the Guardians here at the Tower?"_

 _"I should think so. They have as much of a right as we do to decide the next course of action… and I'm sure that with our decreased numbers, a population-wide vote is far from impossible."_

 _"That's true, but… I think it would be better if that we let the City vote by itself, with no contribution from the Tower."_

 _"What?! That's preposterous! We are the only reason we even exist! If anything, we should be the ones doing the decidi-"_

 _"No, Zavala. Cayde makes a valid point. What do you think will happen when the Tower sees that the Vanguard has split into three? I'm not saying our respective Guardians aren't capable of independent thought… but there is a strong chance that the Warlocks, Hunters and Titans alike will simply side with their Vanguard. Do you see what I'm getting at here?"_

 _"I… I…"_

 _"We can't let our Guardians take sides. We all need to fight together to face the Darkness… and we won't even come close to achieving that if we can't make an unbiased decision about The Covenant. Whether they're allies, or enemies… or whatever the hell else they are, we have to stick together on this."_

 _"Whichever path the people choose… that's the one we'll take. All of us."_

 _"Agreed.  
I'll get the Speaker."_

* * *

"Okay, everyone, rendezvous at the ship, two klicks north." Suzie gave the order as they stepped out into the cold. The wind was blowing harder now, thick, dark clouds had obscured the skies and heavy flakes of ice drifted rapidly through the passing gales. The others looked confused. Suzie sighed.  
"I said, r-rendezvous at the ship!"

"Wait, why?" Walker asked in disbelief. "This isn't over yet, is it?"

"Are… are you qu-questioning my orders, Walker?" Suzie stuttered, trying desperately to be firm with her subordinate. "I'm ab… I'm aborting this mission!"

Serithus grimaced, crossing his arms. "Are you trying to tell us that you're… _scared, **Susan?**_ "

"Exos c-can't feel fear, Arkaness. I know what I'm doing. Too much has gone **wrong** _,_ we _have_ to abort!" Suzie began to feel more confident about raising her voice. "Walker, take Ackerman, I doubt he'll be able to walk on his own for a while. You, beard man, go with Tel. He's severely injured, but he doesn't have the Light, so he can't heal by himself… he'll need some practical surgery done back at the Tower. Seri, it seems you can't be trusted to work alone, so _you_ come with _me._ I've ordered Trinne to wait for us back at the ship."

Walker grumbled to herself as she slung Ackerman's heavy arm over her shoulder and wrenched him into a standing position.  
"Hey, Walker. Looks like this is the closest we've ever been, huh?" Ackerman rasped, chuckling to himself.

"Yeah, _and_ the closest we ever _will_ be. Don't get any ideas. Your hands come off me as soon as you're healed up, and not a **second** later."

"Sure, babe. Whatever you say."

* * *

 _"What brings you here, Hunter Vanguard?"_

 _"We've decided that we're going to let the people vote."_

 _"On what matter?"_

 _"What to do about The Covenant."_

 _"And what options have been proposed?"_

 _"We either kill their messenger and do not let them know of our existence, fight them head on, or agree to form an alliance with their leaders."_

 _"I… I cannot yet say which one is the Light favours, Vanguard. I will soon contact the Travele-"_

 _"About that. We have also decided that neither the Guardians nor the Traveler should have any say in this."_

 _"Oh. And why is that? I think… I think it is rather unwise to disregard the Traveler's wishes, after all He has done for-"_

 _"With all due respect, Speaker, we have already discussed this. We are leaving it up to the people of the City because we fear that the Guardians may split if they are forced to vote to support their Vanguard. We can't afford to have another schism, not like the splintering of the 1st Guardian Order."_

 _"I understand that. However, I believe that if the Traveler Himself makes a decision, then all Guardians will have the same motives, and therefore we can avoi-"_

 _"I'm terribly sorry, but… you're making it sound like we **serve** the Traveler."_

 _"I did not mean that, Vanguard. All I am saying is that, under His unified guidance and knowledge, we can work together to defeat the Darkness without regarding our actions as questionable, meaning tha-"_

 _"My apologies, Speaker, but this is not your call to make. I came here just to notify you of this, not to ask for your permission. Your will, although it may parallel the Traveler's, has no value in this situation. We will begin the ballot tomorrow."_

 _"I… I… I understand, Vanguard. But… you should always remember… the Traveler gave you **life.** And the least you could do to express your gratitude is show Him some respect."_

 _"The Traveler didn't give me life, Speaker. It simply gave it **back** to me. I didn't **ask** to be resurrected…  
 **none of us did."**_

* * *

"This is Susan-04, reporting an abort for the House of Devils Eradication mission. Will have to be completed at a later date due to unexpected complications… will be explained at time of debrief. I would also recommend that a certain Fireteam member be replaced due to… misconduct on the field of battle."

Suzie sighed as the ship began to take off. The hatch on the side whirred and slowly closed up, cutting off the sound of the howling wind and walling off the barrage of ever-thickening snowfall. Ikora wouldn't be angry, would she? No… that wasn't like her, and besides, she had never actually expected them to be able to do it. At least they had killed the Devil Archon, right?  
Well, not _really_ them. It was that Adam guy. Who was he? No-one was really in the mood to ask questions, and Walker had only given them a brief explanation. All Suzie knew so far was that he was one crazy son of a bitch. _Maybe Exos could go insane._ Interesting. She would look into it later.

Trinne's voice broke the silence. "So, uh... Ada-I mean, you? Why are you so eager about meeting Cayde?"

Adam breathed in deeply, closing his eyes as though trying hard to remember something. "Cayde is... was my teacher. I knew so little, once, and he showed me the way. I know that he is wary of the truth, even now... but he hides his true feelings."

Walker cut in. "What's that supposed to mean?" Adam sat looking a her for a few seconds. "And what was all that about being 'exiled'?"

"You will see, in time, green-eyes. Save your questions... the Tower awaits my return."


	6. Adoption Notice

- **ADOPTION NOTICE-**

Hello, readers.

As you can probably tell, I have not uploaded a chapter to any of my stories in a very, very long time. Over the past year, my last school year, I have had little to no time to write fanfiction as well as little to no motivation or inspiration.

 **As a result, I've decided to offer most of my stories up for adoption (this excludes "The Darker Side").**

The word documents for all the chapters were saved on my old computer, which I no longer have, and due to my inactivity I have lost all documents saved on 's storage system. This simply means that I will add "(Part 1)" to the title of the current story and its continuation on the adopter's account will be labelled as "(Part 2)". I will put a footnote on the last chapter of Part 1, directing new readers to the adopter's account.

 **If you wish to adopt this story, please PM me.**

I will give some general comments on where I was planning for the story to go, but these are just mere suggestions and I'd appreciate if you could explain your ideas for the story in return. It would be preferable if you have written other fanfics already so I can look at examples of your work and decide who I will pass the story on to. Once I have chosen someone to adopt the story I will delete this message.

Thank you!


End file.
